afraid to touch any part of my body :(

Hi - last week I discovered what I initially thought was a pimple on my labia...not knowing much about herpes I had examined it with my hands & I am sure touch other parts of my body down there in the process. I have a new partner & the area was bugging me more than a pimple would & I went to the doctor on Saturday. It was only 1 scabbed over area at the time & the doctor did not think it was herpes. He took swabs & advised that I use Neosporin. Well doing that must have back fired because after rubbing neosporin on the area on Sat, I woke up Sunday with 5 small blisters & it is obvious that I have the big H. I have always been safe with condoms, but am pretty certain this came from oral sex
I have been reading a lot of information on it now & am completely freaked that I can be transferring it from skin to skin contact. I'm freaked out that it is on my hands & that I can't touch any part of my face. After talking to my new partner I found out that he gets cold sores. I don't know if I am just psyching myself out, but sometimes I feel like my face is a little itchy & I am afraid to touch it. I'm washing my hands like every five minutes, and when my face itches using any surface of clothing to scratch it so I don't make any skin contact. I am just so freaked out. It's bad enough that I have a ton of painful sores downtown...I could not deal with having an outbreak around my face, which I have to admit given the circumstances is probably a high reality
I don't know what to do. I recalled my doctor today & told him what happened yesterday & have started on medication. I bought every recommended supplement & have even put ice & tea bags on the itchy areas of my face. This all seems like some bad dream I can't wake up from & I feel like I am floating above my life instead of living in it. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to deal? I can't tell if I am being paranoid about my face feeling itchy. How am I supposed to scratch it?

hand sanitizer is a good idea - I'll pick some up asap. The labs haven't determined which type yet. The meds seem to be helping & the pain has subsided a bit. Emotionally I am a bit wreck...I just don't know where I go from here, how I date & disclose, and am feeling so down about myself. I have never felt more alone, stupid & unloveable. I know it will get better, but I just don't know yet how.

Hey BrokenHeart,
We' re all in the same boat. I know besides being physically in pain, the emotional pain is worst. I too was recently diagnosed and also am paranoid about spreading to other parts of my body. Just always wash your hands after dealing with your private area and always have hand sanitizer. I also worry about my face because i have the bad habit of biting my nails. I also dry myself with a hair dryer in fear that i will spread it to my towel. Hope this info helps and that you keep your head. No other option then to keep looking forward.

You will not spread the virus to other parts of your own body after the first episode. Even during this first outbreak, the infection is usually limited to one part of the body. Some people will catch it in two places, for instance they may get it on their hands, as well as on the genitals, since hands can be involved in sexual activitiy. This is called a whitlow. If you have caught it in more than one place, you will notice the symptoms during your first outbreak. They will not appear in a second site, long after first infection."

There is a lot of misinformation out there...I'm finding that half of the information out there states that it cannot be spread to other parts of the body after the initial OB, and the other half says that it can. I think that before an affective vaccine is developed, this information needs to be clear...antibodies are what the vaccine is, and if we don't know how the antibodies work well, how can we develop a vaccine?

The feelings (paranoia) are understandable and normal. It sucks having hsv. All you can really do is just wash your hands frequently and do your best to try not to touch unaffected areas. Mine (oral hsv1) spread from my face to behind my ears, my back, and my upper arms, probably because I touched those areas before I knew any better. Once I figured out what was going on, I washed my hands religously, carried wet wipes everywhere, and started wearing long sleeves. The long sleeves were primarily because I was trying not to infect my toddler son, but it was actually helpful also because whenever my face would itch I could use my sleeve to itch my face instead of my hand/fingers. I have had non-stop symptoms since last August (so going on a year), and as depressing as it is I wanted to let you know that the spreading of my symptoms stopped around 4-5 months and I have been much less stressed about auto-inoculation. Maybe I'm just in denial or am being reckless, but I just have this feeling that for the most part I've gotten past being super contagious (at least to myself). I still am very careful when using towels/washcloths and always wash my hands before touching my eyes, but I don't wash my hands every 10 minutes and don't use my sleeve to itch my face anymore. Hang in there.

Definately keep you hands clean. Herpes can spread to any part of the body. lips,eyes, breasts, mouth, ears, throat,nose. I know from experience. As long as you are conscious of what you do you will be fine. Ironically after I was officially diagnosed I got more careless because I thought o well. And then I got it on my boob and the rim of my eye. I think I have had it in my throat awhile as sometimes I get tickly stingy sensations in my throat and it just feels wierd but haven't seen sores but I know something is up and my lymph node in my throat is always swollen and feels a bit tender. This crap is defintately contaigious so be careful I don't care what anyone says about initial outbreaks this or that.... I have had it 9 years. And just started having it spread to other parts of my body a a month or so ago because again I got careless. But it really isn't hard to prevent it from spreading. If you touch a sore simply wash your hands right after.

well i have hsv1 which is more likely to spread to other parts of the body besides the private area....and it can spread to any part of you no matter how long you have had it. Antibodies don't prevent it from spreading..being clean and conscious of what you touch after you touch an infected part of your body is important. I haven't gotten swabs because I know what it is. It would be pointless I think to go to the doc for a swab. It's highly contagious when there is a sore. Put it like this when you touch another part of your body that isn't already infected then you are infecting yourself again in another region which will suck even further...ie just because you have it vaginally doesn't mean you have it orally...but you can give it to yourself in both places if you aren't careful.......

I just found out that I have HSV (don't know type yet) about a week ago. I am obsessively checking my hands, legs, face, lips, even inside my mouth. Shortly before I discovered the blisters I was treating a vaginal infection with suppositories (doctor prescribed). Even though I washed my hands after I inserted it, I am still convinced I have spread it to my hands. I spend A LOT of time examining myself with a mirror and flashlight... and I've even started wearing rubber gloves. I already had a bit of OCD about STDs, but now it is taking over my life. I am convinced every itch or pimple is herpes. I'm on suppressive meds, but I spend all day every day waiting for the next outbreak and am terrified where it will be and how bad it will be. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life like this.
On a positive note, at least this has made me stop biting my nails!

You will not spread the virus to other parts of your own body after the first episode. Even during this first outbreak, the infection is usually limited to one part of the body. Some people will catch it in two places, for instance they may get it on their hands, as well as on the genitals, since hands can be involved in sexual activitiy. This is called a whitlow. If you have caught it in more than one place, you will notice the symptoms during your first outbreak. They will not appear in a second site, long after first infection."

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I don't believe this is true. I had two original sited, my genitals and inside my left knee. I'm currently on my third consecutive ob after the initial first and this is in a new spot on my shoulder. I'm always washing my hands but I bet I accidentally created this new spot. Anybody know anything about transfering along ur own body?

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I don't believe this is true. I had two original sited, my genitals and inside my left knee. I'm currently on my third consecutive ob after the initial first and this is in a new spot on my shoulder. I'm always washing my hands but I bet I accidentally created this new spot. Anybody know anything about transfering along ur own body?

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Hey Mouse, welcome. It is truly harder to self transmitt the h. Have you had these other spots that you think is herps tested, or swabbed/cultured? The herps virus doesn't live airborne very long. It cannot survive when not directly skin to skin contact is not made. If you have an active breakout and scratch it then immediately scratch another part of you body I would say it could be possible, but never know unless you test. I have had ghsv2 for 24 years and I also have had very long fingernails (all my life, still do imma girl) I have never passed my h. Test it. This is the only way to know for sure its herps and not another member of the herps family called Shingles. This is happening to many , when in fact we use to believe you had to be older to get shingles, now and days this isn't the case. Take care, Truly, Ace

Shingles is known to stay to one side of the body. I had an ob on my knee, then one on my genitals right after that healed and now this new spot. I probably transferred it to the new spot while taking care of another. My chest breaks out in pimples sometimes do that being an opening it coulda easily spread

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Shingles is known to stay to one side of the body. I had an ob on my knee, then one on my genitals right after that healed and now this new spot. I probably transferred it to the new spot while taking care of another. My chest breaks out in pimples sometimes do that being an opening it coulda easily spread

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Hey Mouse , it may be known to stay to one side of the body but it doesn't. My neighbor had it cover his whole body including his mouth , head/hair and his eyes and limbs too. They told him the worst they had ever seen. My MIL (mom in law) gets it too on her legs and under breast bone. Only way to know is to culture/test/swab.. Take care Ace

well i have hsv1 which is more likely to spread to other parts of the body besides the private area....and it can spread to any part of you no matter how long you have had it. Antibodies don't prevent it from spreading..being clean and conscious of what you touch after you touch an infected part of your body is important. I haven't gotten swabs because I know what it is. It would be pointless I think to go to the doc for a swab. It's highly contagious when there is a sore. Put it like this when you touch another part of your body that isn't already infected then you are infecting yourself again in another region which will suck even further...ie just because you have it vaginally doesn't mean you have it orally...but you can give it to yourself in both places if you aren't careful.......

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Antibodies do protect you from getting it elsewhere, so your statement is completely untrue. Herpes Expert, Terri Warren: "The reason you don't get it in a new place is because you have an immune response that recognizes the virus if it tries to get into a new place and says NO, you can't come in. Think about it - if people could get HSV in new place, children who touch cold sores and then touch other parts of their body would be transferring it all the time! In 30 years of practice, I have seen this happen once, and in that case, I'm not at all convinced it happened (the patient thought so but I'm very much less clear). " http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Herpes/Spreading-Cold-Sores-or-HSV1/show/1822568

In almost all cases, the only risk of spreading HSV of either type to other locations of the body is during the primary OB because your body has no antibodies to prevent the virus from spreading since your body doesn't recognize it. Read Terri Warren's statement... If it was easily spread then all these babies and children with cold sores would be spreading their HSV-1 to their genitals and all over their body, and this does NOT happen. You're self diagnosing yourself and should really get these swabbed if you're that concerned. Doctors are wrong over 30% of the time on visual diagnosis of herpes, so assuming you're not an MD, why wouldn't you get this looked at and swabbed? About 1/4 to 2/3 of those infected with genital HSV-1 caught oral HSV-1 from the same exposure that resulted in their primary infection, so it's not unlikely to get HSV-1 in both places from the same encounter, but it is extremely, extremely unlikely to get it in another place after having a longstanding infection.

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